ISLAMABAD, June 2: Acting Senate chairman Commander Khalilur Rahman (retired) has advised the government to make the forthcoming budget a more democratic document with inputs from the neglected segments of the society, including the poor section, who are badly hit.

He was speaking at the inaugural session of a one-day training programme for secretariat officers on budget procedure, held at the Parliament House on Monday. The Asia Foundation and the USAID were associated with the programme.

Commander Khalil observed that, at present, the budget document had the hallmark as a product of bureaucrats, tailored to benefit the rich. However, the elected representatives must reverse this trend. The budget document should be prepared as a democratic tool to reflect people’s aspirations and wishes.

He said: “Greater parliamentary input in the budgetary process contributes to improved national economic policy; and where the government informs the parliament of its intentions, it allows parliamentarians to engage in healthy debates to ensure that policies subsequently adopted and implemented by the government reflect the wishes of the people.”

The morning session took stock of the situation arising out of amended Article 73 of the Constitution, which reads: “After presentation of the annual budget in the National Assembly, a copy thereof shall be transmitted to the Senate which may within seven days make recommendations thereon to the National Assembly which would consider recommendations of the Senate and after the Bill has been passed by the National Assembly with or without recommendation of the Senate it shall be presented to the Senate for assent.”

With this emerging situation, a whole set of procedures needs to be devised at the National Assembly and the Senate; specially, the manner in which the assembly will transmit the document, remains to be spelt out.

According to Senate secretary Shahid Iqbal, the situation turns on the current LFO logjam. He said if the solution to the intriguing LFO question was found, the budget would have an easy passage in the Senate, but seven days were too short for 99 senators to make recommendations.

Quite likely, the Senate will have to constitute a select committee comprising party heads, and its recommendations can be presented in the House after approval, the Senate secretary said.

Former NA secretary Khan Ahmad Goraya, in his key-note speech, said budget was traditionally regarded an arithmetic expression of a government’s plan, and was associated with programmes and management.

Hence, the word ‘recommendation,’ used in amended Article 73, made Senate a powerful instrument to watch the interest of provinces and exert financial control on their behalf, he said.

Since, the prime minister came from a small province, one benefit might be that smaller provinces received handsome financial allocation.

Mr Goraya said upper Houses in a number of countries, including Australia, Britain, India and US, had substantial say in the budgetary process. After amendment to Article 73, the Senate has achieved this right, but seven days are still short to complete the procedure. To negotiate with the problem, both National Assembly and Senate secretariats should make changes in the Rules of Procedures of their respective Houses.

However, amendment to the rules will take a long time, but both Houses can take advantage of the powers vested in the speaker and chairman, paving way for resolution of the problem.

As to budget being a bureaucratic document, one participant wondered why in Pakistan “we are always in a hurry to pass the budget in 15 days or so”. The participant informed the audience that in England, it was debated by various House committees for five months, and in Australia, it took some three months to pass the budget.

In the rush to pass the budget, the important question of supplementary grants, approved initially, was by-passed and, thus, the role of the parliament was minimised.

Asia Foundation representative Rashida Doha said she looked forward to greater cooperation between the Senate Secretariat and her organization. — Jonaid Iqbal